HEALTH

Optical Voucher Values

Rosie Winterton: Regulations have today been laid before Parliament to increase optical voucher values by 2.5 per cent. This will continue to provide help with the cost of spectacles or contact lenses to children, people on low income and individuals with complex sight problems.
	Optical voucher values in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are a matter for the Devolved Administrations.
	Details of the revised optical voucher values have been placed in the Library.

TRADE AND INDUSTRY

EU Energy Council, Brussels

Malcolm Wicks: I will be representing the UK at the Energy Council in Brussels in the morning of 14 March 2006.
	This Austrian Presidency has organised this extra Council, in addition to the normal Energy Council scheduled to take place in Luxembourg on 8 or 9 June, to enable Energy Ministers to discuss progress on developing an EU energy policy. The need for a new European Energy policy was one of the key agreed outcomes from discussion between EU heads of government at Hampton Court last October during the UK's Presidency of the EU.
	Accordingly, the main substantive item on the agenda will be discussion of the Commission's Green Paper, "A European Strategy for Sustainable, Competitive and Secure Energy", published on 8 March. I attach a copy of this and will provide an Explanatory Memorandum in due course. The Green Paper outlines priorities and a broad range of possible actions, which together could provide a solution to the challenges facing the Community's energy policy, in particular the need to secure the energy supply and the competitiveness of European industry. Following a presentation by the Commission, Ministers will have a policy debate on the key issues. The Presidency has prepared questions to guide the debate. In particular, these will give Ministers the opportunity to comment on the Commission's analysis, to suggest other dimensions of energy policy that might not have been addressed by the Commission, and to highlight their main energy policy concerns and preferred solutions. This item will take up the bulk of the Council's time.
	Under Any Other Business, the Austrian Presidency will provide information on the Agriculture Council's ongoing work on bio-energy.

The Phoenix Development Fund

Alun Michael: I regret that there was an error in my statement made on 2 March 2006 (Official Report, column 38WS). The reference to the "Local Enterprise Grant Initiative" should have said "Local Enterprise Growth Initiative". A revised statement is printed below.
	"The Phoenix Development Fund is a time-limited initiative designed to explore good practice in delivering business support and to find innovative ways to reach out to communities considered hard to reach by mainstream providers. It was not designed to provide long term or core funding for business support organisations. The Small Business Service (SBS, an agency of the DTI) will not be contracting for any new activities under this programme when existing contracts end in March 2006. We are currently discussing with RDAs on the arrangements for local management of the fund.
	Since 2000, the Phoenix programme has done some excellent work to help budding entrepreneurs who face particular barriers when starting or growing a business. The main beneficiaries of the programme come from communities which are under-represented in business and/or live in deprived neighbourhoods. The programme is made up of two elements: the Phoenix Challenge Fund, which supports Community Development Finance Institutions; and the Phoenix Development Fund, which supports projects aimed at finding innovative ways to provide business support to the above communities.
	It has been decided that the Challenge Fund will continue as a national budget of the Small Business Service for a further two years but in the main will be managed by the RDAs who have also received a contribution to the "single pot" for 2006–07 and 2007–08 for this purpose.
	The Phoenix Development Fund has been successful and we now need to ensure that the innovative approaches that have been developed are built upon by mainstream providers of business support. The knowledge and good practice accumulated over the years in dozens of projects funded by the PDF is being collated and catalogued and we will be working with stakeholders and partners over the next year to ensure this legacy is embedded in mainstream provision of business support.
	Delivery of initiatives to encourage more enterprise in under-represented groups and deprived communities is increasingly managed at the Regional Development Agencies and Local Authorities in line with their wider responsibilities for delivery of business support and economic regeneration. RDAs have already been awarded an increase to their funds from April 2006 in recognition of their increased responsibility that, although it will not replace the national funding, will augment their existing provision. In addition, the Government has introduced the Local Enterprise Growth Initiative that will provide £300 million over three years to local councils in the most deprived areas to encourage the development of more enterprising communities and this programme will benefit from the lessons learned through the Phoenix Development Fund as well as being joined up with the continuing work of the Phoenix Challenge Fund and the Community Development Finance Institutions that it supports."

TRANSPORT

Light Dues 2006–07

Stephen Ladyman: I am pleased to announce that for 2006–07 light dues rates for merchant ships will be reduced from 39p to 35p per tonne. The tonnage cap will remain the same at 35,000 tons making the maximum charge for light dues £12,250 per voyage. In line with the Government's commitment to reduce the regulatory burden, the requirement to record the departure dates of vessels for collection purposes will be removed. The exemption from payment of light dues for vessels calling at a port in ballast will end.
	The Government remains committed to a cost recovery system, but is determined to minimise the cost burden on the shipping industry. The rate per tonne has fallen repeatedly since its 1993 peak of 43p. Reducing it now to 35p constitutes a further 10.2 per cent. fall. This is a remarkable achievement during a period of major capital investment by the General Lighthouse Authorities and against a background of general inflation. It is a credit to the commitment of the General Lighthouse Authorities—Trinity House Lighthouse Service, the Northern Lighthouse Board and the Commissioners of Irish Lights—to the delivery of an efficient and cost effective aids to navigation service.
	The strong performance of the underlying General Lighthouse Fund in the past year also makes a cut on this scale possible. The cut returns to the light dues payer the benefit of the growth in the Fund, for as long as this proves possible.
	This is excellent news for all merchant ships. I welcome the assurance of the Lights Advisory Committee, who represent the shipping industry, ports and cargo interests, that they are prepared to support a rise in light dues rates should this become necessary at some future date.